Newcastle United chairman Chris Mort insists he's the man in charge at St James' Park.

Mort is keen to tackle the theories that Mike Ashley is making all the decisions that matter at St James's - and that sacking Allardyce could yet be prominent among them.

"If people want to say I'm a puppet, fine. But it doesn't reflect the reality," Mort told the Sunday Sun. "I've been consistent throughout, Mike's been consistent throughout. He didn't want to get involved in the business side.

"He's got his own massive, multi- national business. That's his day job and he doesn't want Newcastle United to become a day job as well.

"So he wants me to run the club and he wants to come and support it, which he thoroughly enjoys doing.

"He just wants me to get on with it. I understand what the financial spend of the club can be, but within those constraints it's for me to go and run the business, and that includes deciding to sign players.

"In the summer, he didn't get involved in any of the signings. That's not the role he wants.

"We travel to games together, we talk as mates do about the team and how it's going. But he's not out to influence who's in the team.

"He seems less involved day to day than, say, Roman Abramovich is at Chelsea. Mike's a passionate supporter. In fact, my conversations with Mike in the context of Newcastle tend to be on matchdays and not often in between."